What Happened to Pure Shooting Stars?

Other than Wayne Ellington, Stephen Curry, and Jodie Meeks there rarely is any prospects now a days that are pure shooting stars. Back in the days there were, Reggie Miller, Mark Price, Glen Rice, Mitch Richmond, Ray Allen, Allan Houston, Peja Stojakovic, Ben Gordon and etc. as players that were pure shooters, but also star players. Then there were players like Steve Kerr, Craig Hodges, Hubert Davis, and Dennis Scott, who were also great shooters too, but were more complimentary players than stars. The only real pure shooters that was drafted in recent times, were Kyle Korver, Jason Kapono, Ben Gordon, JJ Redick, Martell Webster, and Eric Gordon. Out that group, the only one that had some form of potential to perphaps one day be an NBA All-Star, was Martell Webster, but he's on a team (Portland Trailblazers), that only expects him to catch and shoot. Ben Gordon, to me is just a great scorer off the bench, nothin' else. With Eric Gordon, the jury is still out, but I doubt he'll be an All-Star. Have the age of pure shooting stars died?

In my opinion it is because usually great shooters are usually meant to be role players. Usually shooters are just that, and are very easy to cover, ala Reddick. The way players grow up playing basketball these days, the main focus is on dunking and crazy ball-handling skills and extremely deep three point shooting. Therefore mid range shooting, which is now a lost art basically, is left out, along with just perfecting your jumper. Usually athletes make it on that athletic ability alone and potential so they don't really need one until they are riding the pine for some NBA team. I do think Jodie Meeks, if he improves his overall game could be a shooting star in the future though.

Ray Allen had crazy hops coming out of UCCON and in his early days with the Bucks, with nice handle, and he still was a pure shooter, but other than him, I haven't seen no other player, mix it up with pure shooting, being able to throw down some athletic dunks, and have crazy handle. Maybe Chase Budinger, but Ray Allen had way better ball handling skills, coming out of college into the NBA.

budinger and dont sleep on aj abrams either. But like yall said, budinger isnt a great ball-handler and neither is abrams really. Meeks isnt much of a handler either so...basically its really easy to cover these "pure shooters" because they dont really have the handle to make them multidimensional.

Many players in the NBA get a great jump shot after they are already in the NBA. Michael Redd is a great example of that as he was more of a slasher coming out of OSU and then developed his jumper into one of the games best.

To grberg23: That's exactly why I didn't put Michael Redd on the list because he became a good shooter, in the NBA. I'm talking about players that were already good shooter from college, Europe, or where ever. Michael Redd owes a lot to his former coach George Karl. Karl had Ray Allen and Redd together, but Redd was frequently injured when Allen was a Buck, so they didn't get to play much together because eventually the Bucks shipped Ray Ray out of town for Gary Payton. Anyways George Karl told him that the only way he would stay in the league is if he turned into a pure shooter. Redd did that, and he's a 3 time All-Star and Olympic Gold medalist.

Im thinking that Eric Gordon is going to be an all star. He is a very very good player and is very young. He can do more than shoot though so I don't really think you can classify him as a pure shooter. He is very good off the dribble driving to the rack... but I see him being an all star more than once and the best player on the clippers for years to come

This is the list of players I could think of that relied heavily on their jumpers in college, HS, or Europe and are good or could be good. OJ Mayo is a shooting semi-star. Kevin Durant, Danny Granger, and Kevin Martin rely heavily on their jumpers and are kinda-stars. Others who have a small chance to become stars that are mainly shooters are Rudy Fernandez, JR Smith, Daequan Cook, Rashad McCants and Andrea Bargnani. Also, Eric Gordon is the man and will be a star.

Back in the day, players were allowed to be more physical especially in paint, so whomever went inside got bruised up pretty well, so shooting was premium back then, if you didn't have shooters you werent going to have much success unless you had supreme big man or real athletic wing who could take the pounding because old-school ball down-low was no pads football (watch jordan vs pistons). Nowadays the NBA is a touchy game so athletes can showcase their skill and physical altercations are kept in check, basically the refs were giving the green light to call whatever call they needed to keep the game in order (that's what David Stern would say). So in today's NBA a player like D. Wade would make alot of points from free-throw line because he was assertive taken it to the basket, and has little worry about getting his head knocked off. What is now a flagrant was foul in 70's,80's, and early part of 90's, The Heat don't win that championship with pure shooting D. Wade, they won it with aggresive wing, now do you think the pistons of 80's would consistenly let Wade get to the basket? No, they would of slammed him to the floor a couple times and really bruised his body up, he wouldn't of made it to game 4. I just feel their is less reason to become a pure shooters since you can do so much more damage taken it the basket because your rewarded for it in today's NBA. Which leads kids to follow what their idols do dunks, layups and free throws.

He is gonna be a 18-22 a night player in a year or two. This would be his Sophmore year of college, and he is puttin up like 14 and 5 assists i think, if im not mistaken. Thats rediculous, I know he is getting alot of opportunity on the awful Clippers, but I think get why nobody really talks about him in this amazing draft class of last year. Durant is a star, he isn't going anywhere. Granger is an All-Star. I think the biggest change in the game that is causing the decline of the star shooter is the fact that there are farrr more elite wings than points, and teams with these Elite wings ala Lebron, Kobe, and im not sayin he is as good but TMAc, are on the ball alot more than thier point guards. Wings have the ball more now, so for them to create, they need an offdribble game that most of the shooters of late lack.

To Astro: Yeah, scouting reports all over are saying Xavier Henry has a silky smooth jumper, but I haven't really seen him play. When he arrives at Memphis University, I'll be able to get a better look of his game and how his future lies as the next shooting star.